A News Blog

Keeping you in the know in the world of politics

TUSCALOOSA | When Sonia Sotomayor was up for confirmation as our first Hispanic United States Supreme Court justice (and only the third female of more than 100 to serve on the nation’s highest court) a lot was made of her statement that she thought a “wise Latina” would make better judgements that some of the standard-issue white males that have dominated the court. But one interesting aspect of Sotomayor’s confirmation, background and affect on the court was that she became… Read More »

TUSCALOOSA | Is Alabama Republican U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus a “birther,” that is, one of those on the fringe both in Congress and the public at large who believes President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and thus not eligible to be President? Well, that’s one of the questions I wanted to ask him during one of our video “Town Halls” I do for our website when he was by here a couple of weeks ago for an editorial board meeting.… Read More »

TUSCALOOSA | With the death of Sen. Ted. Kennedy not only have the Democrats lost their supposedly filibuster-proof 60 member majority, but also lost their biggest advocate for real health care reform, although to be honest about it, the last of the “Liberal Lions” had been effectively lost to them since developing brain cancer last year. But before he was forced to the sidelines, Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed a health care reform bill of its own… Read More »

TUSCALOOSA | I sort of fell into the “those were the good old days” trap in my Sunday At Large Column in The Tuscaloosa News (these are actually the good old days right now), but what I was really writing about was the late publisher of The Decatur Daily, Barrett Shelton Sr., and how he was one of the last of a dying breed of newspaper wheeler-dealers. The Daily, of which I have many, many fond memories, is now one of… Read More »

TUSCALOOSA | Eyebrows were certainly raised in our editorial board meeting Tuesday when U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, a Vestavia Hills Republican and the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee said that Social Security could be in “default” within two years. Oops. An email from his staff came into the office after the story had been posted on line saying that Bachus had meant to say “deficit.” “Wanted to make a clarification on Congressman Bachus’ Social Security comment since… Read More »

NOTE: If you have politBITS on your favorites list and this is what it pulled up when you hit it, that means you are going to the old site and will need to make a new link. We recently changed to a new host and I guess that means the old link stops with this post. TUSCALOOSA | Alabama’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Ron Sparks was in town earlier this week, visiting with local officials and supporters before speaking… Read More »

TUSCALOOSA | Sarah Palin broke her oath to serve the people of Alaska as governor for four years when she up and quit a couple of weeks ago and now is just another private citizen. But that hasn’t kept the soccer mom with lipstick from staying in the limelight without outrageous pronouncements. Her podium is now her Face Book page where she is accusing the Democrats working for health care in Congress of engaging in “evil” and trying to implement… Read More »

TUSCALOOSA | The Town Hall tradition in America is a noble one, going back to Colonial times when entire communities would periodically gather to discuss the issues of the day and often to take votes on how to proceed on those issues. In our modern, much larger and more unwieldy democracy, the tradition lives on, although it has morphed into events where elected officials host a room full of constituents, usually make brief statements and then field questions for an… Read More »